1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to seat belt restraint systems for vehicle passenger safety. More particularly, this invention relates to seat belt buckle devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known in the prior art to provide a buckle for an automotive or other vehicle seat belt. Typically, such prior buckle devices are simple latch and release devices that do not incorporate an interlock that ensures that only one, and always one, belt system tongue is inserted and locked in the buckle. For general background material, the reader is directed to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,633,697, 3,648,333, 3,718,902, 3,732,538, 3,744,794, 3,748,640, 3,757,293, 3,770,919, 3,781,967, 3,796,888, 3,831,140, 3,833,781, 3,863,209, 3,864,668, 3,874,474, 3,956,603, 3,969,795, 3,996,648, 4,000,385, 4,015,094, 4,034,931, 4,052,775, 4,060,878, 4,099,306, 4,107,645, 4,136,328, 4,197,919, 4,445,722, 4,480,713, 4,531,762, 4,569,536, 4,637,102, 4,667,336, 4,691,875, 4,742,886, 4,844,196, 4,871,044, 4,915,413, 5,054,171, 5,088,160, 5,098,162, 5,121,527, 5,165,498, 5,292,153, 5,322,348, 5,394,955, 5,395,136, 5,484,190, 5,671,948, 5,685,567, 5,742,986, 5,781,971, 5,881,439, 5,898,366, 5,907,892, 5,944,135 each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for the material contained therein.
It is desirable to provide a buckle mechanism that incorporates an interlock to facilitate a detachable seat belt system that ensures the correct placement of the lap and shoulder belt portions of a three-point seat belt system. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a vehicle seat belt restraint buckle that permits only one seat belt web attachment tongue to be latched at any one particular time.
Therefore, it is the general object of this invention to provide a vehicle safety restraint seat belt buckle that incorporates an interlock mechanism to permit only one web tongue to be latched at a time.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a vehicle safety restraint seat belt buckle that ensures the correct placement of the lap and shoulder belt portions of a three-point seat belt system.
It is another object of this invention to provide a vehicle safety restraint seat belt buckle that ensures that the insertion of one web tongue causes the ejection of the other web tongue.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a vehicle safety restraint seat belt buckle that, once first used, does not permit a condition where neither of the web restraint tongues are latched.
Another object of this invention is to provide a vehicle safety restraint seat belt buckle that requires the buckle be connected to the static tongue in order to permit the release of the restraint tongue.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a vehicle safety restraint seat belt buckle that is compatible with existing three-point seat belt restraint systems.
These and other objects, advantages, and other novel features of this invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned with the practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of this invention may be realized and attained by the means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. Still other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description and drawings, wherein there is shown and described the preferred embodiment of this invention. This preferred embodiment is presented simply by way of illustration of one of the modes best suited to carry out this invention. As it will be realized, this invention is capable of other different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification in various aspects without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions should be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.
To achieve the foregoing and other objectives, and in accordance with the purposes of the present invention, this seat belt buckle system is provided with an interlocking rocker that is spring loaded to hold a single tongue in place.